Louise Piche of Shelburne, who stayed at St. Joseph's Orphanage in Burlington as a child, speaks to media after a news conference Monday, Sept. 10, 2018, announcing the creation of a task force to investigate allegations of child murder and other crimes, crimes she says victims spoke up about time after time, but were not believed.(Photo: RYAN MERCER/FREE PRESS)Buy Photo

During the public announcement at the Burlington Police Department, Vermont Attorney General T.J. Donovan said he hoped the investigation into abuse alleged to have occurred at the Burlington orphanage could bring voice to abuse survivors who have "suffered in silence."

"Sir, I think it's really important since the process is going to go forward for you not to say that victims have suffered in silence," Piché, 73, said. "Victims have not suffered in silence. They have suffered by not being listened to or believed."

Allegations of abuse were initially raised in the 1990s during survivors' quest for justice in federal and state civil courts, where they were largely not successful. The orphanage was run by the Sisters of Providence from the 1800's until it closed in 1974.

Piché later told reporters she lived at the orphanage in the late 1940s or early 1950s with her brother and sister. They were not orphans — their mother became ill and father still had to work, so the nuns cared for the three kids. While at St. Joseph's, Piché said she witnessed and suffered abuses, but added that many of them would not be considered "abuse" in those days.

"For example, you were hit a fair amount; that was just a normal, natural thing," Piché said. "But, of course, if you think about 40 years ago, many children were hit in their homes. Some of the most damaging things is you were kept apart from your brothers and sisters. You were not allowed to speak with them."

Quotes found written all over the now-closed St. Joseph's Orphanage in Burlington, Vermont, were painted on the walls of a second-floor room as part of an artwork by Abbey Meaker titled "The Writing Room." It was a portion of an installation-based exhibition called 'An Order" organized by Meaker in 2015. Ian MacLellan for BuzzFeed News

The building in Burlington that used to house Burlington College and the former St. Joseph’s Orphanage is the first phase of the Cambrian Rise development. Multiple new buildings are also planned for the property. Seen on Thursday, January 19, 2017. GLENN RUSSELL/FREE PRESS

The view from the building in Burlington that used to house Burlington College and the former St. Joseph's Orphanage is the now the first phase of the Cambrian Rise development. Multiple new buildings are also planned for the property. Seen on Thursday, January 19, 2017. GLENN RUSSELL/FREE PRESS

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Piché added that children would sometimes be locked in the attic or a dark closet as punishment. The children's greatest fear was burning in hell for not doing everything they were told. She said her sister later spent time at the state psychiatric hospital.

Piché said she considers the nuns victims too — she suspects they were likely subjected to harsh punishment within their own order and most likely did not want to be working around children in an orphanage.

"I think it's ignorance that causes it, a deep, deep ignorance," Piché said. "When you have power over people, you have to be twice as gentle, or 10 times as gentle."

Piché said she attended the news conference to heal.

"I almost didn't come," Piché said. She added, "My coming today is to heal the pain that's in this belly, not just for myself. My sister never really recovered. ... And just to say how can we do this better?"